Hunt Sports Group remains on the lookout for local investors but is committed to both Columbus
and the Crew, Chairman Clark Hunt said.

In a phone interview from Kansas City, Mo., Hunt said the team’s search for more local ownership
does not mean that his family plans to sell a majority stake in the Crew or move the team.

“Our desire is to continue to control the club,” he said. “The league has certain rules
regarding the minimum ownership that you have to have to control a franchise, and certainly we’ll
plan to stay above the minimum.”

In 1998, the Crew had 22 minority owners; together, they owned a 45 percent stake in the club.
The Crew has since kept ownership figures private, but Hunt said his family now owns “very close to
100 percent” of the team. The chief local investor remains Ron Pizzuti, head of Pizzuti Sports
Limited.

Hunt said the need for more local investors rose to prominence three or four years ago.

“We’ve had a number of people look at the opportunity, but so far, nobody has engaged us in
serious negotiations,” he said.

In a video interview last fall, Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber told
SportsBusiness Journal that the league was looking to find local help for the Hunt family,
which had “made a commitment to get out.” Hunt said the commissioner’s words took him by
surprise.

“It was disbelief that the commissioner would accidentally misstate our desire to add local
investors to the team, which is something that he’s been aware of for several years and something
that we’ve worked on, not with very much success,” he said. “I think that’s what he was trying to
say, but he didn’t say it correctly.”

The front office has publicized two goals yet to be achieved to help the Crew become financially
solvent: finding a naming-rights partner for Crew Stadium and reaching 10,000 season-ticket
holders.

The Crew is mum on how many season tickets have been sold, but Hunt said: “I will say that the
Crew had one of the largest percentage increases in our fan base last year across Major League
Soccer, which I think shows the growth, but we still have a ways to go.”

Should the Crew not reach all three goals within two years or so, “It would be very challenging,
and that’s why we decided to kick off the campaign and make it such a priority,” Hunt said. “We’ve
been in Columbus now — this is our 18th season — and it’s time that we become one of the
financially strong franchises in the league.”

For now, Hunt said, the Crew will continue to invest in Crew Stadium while seeking a new
training facility. Hunt said the team is in discussions with potential developers for a new
practice complex with at least a dozen attached youth fields.

It could be one part of what Hunt feels could be a watershed season for the Crew both on the
field and in the business community.

“I certainly am very encouraged by both what I see with the team and the business side of the
operation,” he said. “The league is really, really on the move, and I think the Crew has an
opportunity to be one of the leaders. “We’ve always viewed ourselves as leaders, going back to when
the league was founded and when Crew Stadium was built. I think it can be a very, very special
year, one that would perhaps challenge 2008 as my favorite season.”